Term
| List the four classes of cellular macromolecules |
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Definition
There are proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids. All of these have subtypes and perform many functions within in the cell |
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Term
| List six characteristics of living organisms and think about why they might be important to its survival |
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Definition
There are compartmentalization/metabolism, reproductions, evolution, movement, differentiation and communication |
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Term
| What prevented advances in microbiology before Anton van Leuwenhoek's time? |
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Definition
Microscopes were very primative back in AvL's day. He used a simple, low-magnification light microscope to discover his "wee animalcules" |
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Term
| How did Pasteur's swan-neck flask experiment show that the concept of spontaneous generation was invalid? |
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Definition
He took a non-sterile liquid and heated the liquid to the point of sterilization. If he kept the flask upright as usual then there would be no contact with airborne contaminants and the liquid would remain clear over a long period of time but upon tipping the flask over to expose it to air it almost immediately began to develop microorganisms |
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Term
| What advantages do solid media offer for the culture of microorganisms? |
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Definition
Solid media can be used to isolate the offspring colonies of one individual cell using the streaking method. This way you can keep track of what microorganism you're utilizing |
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Term
| How did the evolution of cyanobacteria chance the Earth forever? |
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Definition
Cyanobacteria turned elemental forms of oxygen (such as iron oxide) into oxygen gas very slowly. This eventually oxygenated the atmosphere and allowed for the development of complex living organisms |
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Term
| For what contributions are Hooke and van Leeuwenhoek most known for? |
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Definition
Hooke was the first scientist to ever describe microbes and he also took some early pictures of the flowering structures of molds. Van Leeuwenhoek is most remembered for describing cells (even though he didn't know the impact of his work at the time of his initial discovery) |
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Term
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Definition
A cell is the fundamental unit of living matter. Viruses don't officially count as life because they depend on target cells for protein production and reproduction |
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Term
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Definition
This is a form of metabolism in which inorganic compounds are used to generate energy |
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Term
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Definition
The cytoplasm is the fluid portion of a cell bounded the the cell membrane |
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Term
| What is the enrichment culture technique? |
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Definition
This technique is a method for isolating specific microorganisms from nature using specific culture mediua and incubation conditions |
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Term
| What are Koch's postulates? |
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Definition
Koch's postulates state that the suspected pathogenic organism should be present in all cases of the disease and absent when target organisms were healthy. This involved a plate comparison analysis and reisolation and further inoculation with the isolated suspected pathogen |
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